The Shadow of the Torturer
I became interested in Shadow of the Torturer, and the ‘Book of the New Sun’, while reading the Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruoccio, since he was inspired by it. I’ve always known about the Book of the New Sun tetralogy, but never really found myself gravitating towards it. After scouring for some vintage copies, I found some great mass market paperbacks and began my read! I recently read Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe as well, and I really loved that book, so my expectations for this in terms of writing style were well set, and well met. Gene Wolfe is a fantastic writer, and Shadow of the Torturer will challenge you and make you think twice about some of the passages you are reading.
The basic premise of the first novel in the series is that a boy named Severian is adopted into the torturer’s guild, which is responsible for carrying out punishments for the kingdom in the city of Nessus. The first part really lays that ground work of the guild and the citadel within the massive city of Nessus where he grows up to eventually become a journeyman of the guild. During his time and journey there, he eventually must abandon his guild in exile after showing mercy to a woman named Thecla that he falls in love with, and make his way towards another city, Thrax. This basic setting is the main course of that puts the plot and quest in motion.
One thing to note is that Gene Wolfe throws you into Severian’s story without a lot of context about the world, how it came to be, what everything he says means etc.. he doesn’t do the ‘let’s explain this system’ trope that many fantasy or sci fi books do. He simply throws you into the deep end as if you’re already familiar with this setting. This can be quite displacing for some readers, but also can be a rewarding experience as things start to click. He also uses a lot of obscure or made up words, like ‘fulgin’ which is supposed to be darker than black and describes the cloaks of the torturer. He does great description of the cloaks:
“I put on the cloak… the hue fuligin, which is darker than black, admirably erases all folds, bunchings and gatherings so far as the eye is concerned, showing only a featureless dark.”
Oh and his master gives him a sword for the journey, that is named Terminus Est. This nearly acts like a character of its own, and Severian takes very exceptional care for it. If I understand correctly, the sword has a hollow area that includes some Liquid Metal (Mercury) that shifts the weight of the sword when he swings it, making it ideal for executions. It also has a square tip, since it was not forged for battle.
The start of his journey to Thrax is interrupted with him performing his executioner duties at times, meeting with people, and at one point even being challenged to a duel. This sets a new course of distraction for Severian where he must prepare for such duel.
What I really liked about the book was the quiet foreignness of Urth, and the fact that we are reading about an Earth set many millennia later than our present day. It almost reads like another planet altogether. It’s clear that modern or futuristic technology is present (or was present), almost like ‘relics’ and the words for them are sort of ‘missing’ from common vocabulary at this point. There are some very vivid and weird places Severian passes through during this part of his journey, like the Botanical Garden, or the room of mirrors, and even the place where he must participate in his duel.
It’s hard for me to go around recommending Shadow of the Torturer to anyone, just because it’s quite out there, but it is brilliant. Many will read and perhaps not be okay with Gene Wolfe’s writing of women, I try to tell myself that this POV is of Severian, and the author wrote this in the 80s - not that any of that is a excuse. If you’re a fan of sci fi and fantasy then it’s an amazing book, but I suspect you’ll have to read more than once to appreciate things.